Bolling: Debt, Debt Everywhere, and No One Seems To Care

I know that I harp from time to time about our nation’s $32 trillion national debt, but here are some more sobering statistics for you to consider: U.S. payments on debt spike to $659 billion, nearly doubling in two years (Washington Post).

The U.S. government spent $659 billion this year just to pay the interest on the national debt, according to a Treasury report released Friday. This year’s sum was almost twice as much as just two years ago!

The United States spends more on interest on the national debt than on all federal programs for children, including child care, education, and tax credits for families, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for a lower deficit.

We are currently spending almost as much every year to cover interest payments on the national debt as we are spending on Medicare for seniors or for national defense.

Within three years, if interest rates remain elevated, interest payments on the national debt could become the second-largest federal program — behind only Social Security, which provides pensions for millions of seniors.
Depending on future rates, interest payments on the national debt could reach a whopping $2 trillion per year by the end of the decade, consuming close to 30 percent of all federal tax revenue.

Wake up people! We can’t keep making promises we can’t keep and spending money we don’t have to pay for them. As usual, the White House and Congress are asleep at the switch, and seemingly oblivious to the looming financial crisis they are creating. But trust me, it’s coming, and someday soon we are all going to have to pay the piper.